Chef Alain Ducasse: Recipe For Success

Entrepreneur. Businessman. Mogul. Celebrity. Connoisseur. Iconoclast. In addition to his renown as Master Chef du jour , Alain Ducasse is the quintessence of all of these, and yet so many more.

Although his arrival on the culinary scene in North America did not bear fruit until the year 2000, to even a casual critic in Europe prior, Ducasse was a veritable Titan of haute cuisine. Think Michael Jordan without the jump shot, Alex Rodriguez without the home run, Mario Lemieux without the backhand pass, and Brett Favre without the touchdown bomb. Put a spatula in their hands and you have Alain Ducasse, a culinary magician and icon in his profession. Name another chef who has been the subject of profiles by CNN (on the business program Pinnacle ) and Martha Stewart. Now that is a good thing.

makings of a master

And so is the Ducasse empire, which at last count, had roots in three continents. His gastronomic supremacy is not in dispute, with restaurants in London, New York, Paris, Monte Carlo, Saint-Tropez, and Mauritius. Ducasse has a guide to the resorts and restaurants of France. He has cookbooks and a line of frozen foods. You can find recipes by Ducasse on AOL France and even purchase high-end kitchen items off his official site at absurd prices. If you peek above the stratosphere of household name chefs where the likes of Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck hold court, there sits Ducasse, purveyor of excessive culinary sophistication.

Before we look at Ducasse the enigma, let us dispense with the collection of accolades that have, in the opinion of some, made his career, as well as his name.

The Michelin Red Guide is the ultimate dictator of culinary excellence in France. It can elevate a chef to star status or demote him to career purgatory. Ducasse has been the paramount recipient of the former. His claim to fame is that he was the first chef in six decades to hold six Michelin stars at the same time. The first perfect, or three-star score was for his restaurant Le Louis XV, in the posh Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. The honor came in 1990, when Ducasse, at age 33, had been at the helm of the restaurant for a mere 33 months.

His second set of three stars came in 1997 for his restaurant in Paris. With the modest moniker of Alain Ducasse , it was the sensation of the city. It has since undergone relocation and name change to Restaurant Plaza Athenée, as well as another three-star score courtesy of Michelin. In order to conform to his impossible standards of perfection, it was not unusual for Ducasse to fly between Monte Carlo and Paris every day to oversee the kitchens of both establishments. His resolute attention to detail is notorious but unlike other chefs who have undergone mental breakdowns and even suicide, in part because of obsessive-compulsive behavior, Ducasse has been the focus of praise for his grace under pressure.